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How many carbohydrates do you need to boost your mood?

Submitted by Natural Solutio... on Tue, 2018-03-06 08:38

By planetnaturopath
Posted Friday, January 19, 2018

Often when people are feeling down they reach for the comfort foods like
chocolate, cakes and other sweet indulgences, as these simple
carbohydrates help boost mood. This approach may bring short term pleasure
but it does not take long for the feelings of guilt, sadness and
depression to creep back in.

If this high carbohydrate/ high sugar approach does not work to improve
symptoms of anxiety and depression, what about the growing trend of high fat
and low carbohydrate diets to help with anxiety and depression?

Low carbohydrate diets have become popular in the last few years as they are
quite effective to lose weight, which in itself can often boost mood and
self esteem in the short term. If you are overweight a low carbohydrate diet
can also help to balance your blood sugar levels, high blood sugar levels
will lead to fluctuations in your mood and energy levels.

These can be great short term results, but what about the long term affects.

Low carbohydrate diets and depression
Many people feel liberated on a low carb diet, they are no longer always
searching for food, have better energy and feel great mentally. But for all
the success stories of low carb diets there are other people out there who
are left feeling flat and depressed eating a low carb diet.

A low carb diet can also work great in the short term, but symptoms of
insomnia and irritability can start to creep in after a few months, this can
be frustrating especially after such promising results.

One of the reasons that a low carb diet can affect mood is that it causes
changes to your guts bacteria levels, your beneficial bacteria “feed” on
healthy carbohydrates from vegetables and starchy carbohydrates. The change
in diet can lead to a change in the composition of your gut bacteria, this
can affect all aspects of your health, including your mood.

I see a low carb/ high fat diet as a short term solution for people who are
overweight, or have high blood sugar levels as this can help to improve your
metabolism and energy levels. Long term a low carb diet can affect your
neurotransmitter production, serotonin in particular needs carbohydrates in
the diet for optimal levels.

How many carbohydrates should I eat?
If a diet high in carbohydrates can lead to blood sugar fluctuations which
can cause anxiety and depression, and a diet low in carbohydrates can lead
to low serotonin which can lead to irritability and depression then how many
carbohydrates should you eat?

I don’t like to count macronutrients as this can overwhelm some people, and
cause other people to be far too obsessive with what they eat, I like to
just keep it simple.

If you focus on having some protein with each meal, include some of the
beneficial fats like olive oil, avocado oil and coconut oil, and fill up the
rest of your plate with vegetables and other carbohydrates that are as least
processed as possible.

Carbohydrates to include are
rice
quinoa
starchy vegetables like sweet potato
legumes and lentils
fruits in moderation
unlimited amounts of vegetables
If you follow this approach your daily carbohydrate intake will fall between
100 and 200 grams a day, this is the middle path or moderate approach.

The timing of carbohydrates
If you find that your energy levels and mood improves on a low carb diet,
but don’t want the negative consequences of eating this way long term, then
you may benefit from eating your carbohydrates later in the day.

If you keep to a low carbohydrate diet in the day you will have the benefits
of stable blood sugar, balanced energy levels and weight loss. Think eggs,
fish, chicken for your protein sources, good quality fats and non-starchy
vegetables during the day.

At night time have the majority of your starchy carbohydrates to boost
serotonin and melatonin levels, improve your sleep and keep your gut
bacteria healthy. It is a myth that you won’t “burn” these carbohydrates at
night and they will be stored as fat, so if you are wanting to lose weight
this is a good way to do it.

What about treats
Nobody should have to follow the perfect diet all of the time, sweet treats
are part of life, part of celebrations and denying yourself an indulgence
will only lead to resentment to the way you are eating.

But treats as the name implies are a “treat”, something to be had
occasionally and not an everyday food item. I like the 80/20 rule, if 80% of
your meals comprise of real unprocessed foods then having the occasional
indulgence is ok, unless of course you are a “sugar junkie” when a zero
sugar approach is often the best.

There is no one size fits all when it comes to macronutrient and calorie
intake, each person has to experiment to see what works best for them, and
if what your doing right now is not working it would be a good time to
consider making some changes

Summary
There is no one size fits all for most things, including how many
carbohydrates you should eat.

The Inuit people thrive on a high fat diet that includes only 3% of their
diet being carbohydrates. On the flip side the Kitavan people of the Pacific
eat a diet consisting of 75-80% carbohydrates with low levels of fat.

The key take away is that both the Inuit and Kitavan people don’t eat
processed foods, and their particular diet is well suited to their genetics,
and they both enjoy good health, that is until they start to adopt the high
processed food Western diet. The optimal diet for you is going to vary
depending on your genes, stress levels, sleep quality, exercise and body
composition.